Box Builder's Handbook

Our daily lives are full of boxes — some purely functional, others purely decorative, but most provide both beauty and a worthwhile purpose. There are many ways to make boxes; square, round, long, tall, turned or bandsawn. In the Box Builder’s Handbook, author A.J. Hamler presents some of the projects as introductions to specific box styles. Others are stand-alone projects, but most are an example of a box type, and as part of the project he offers tips and suggestions on how to use the project as a springboard to make additional boxes of this type. Follow the step-by-step instructions and diagrams to build the box of your choice, or build them all and learn a new skill with each new project. And as a bonus, every project in this book will make a great handmade gift for someone special.

corralled during play is sometimes problematic.
This project, which is really two nesting boxes,

In the Business Card Holder project, I addressed
the issue of creating your own stock for a project. We’ll

solves both problems. The card tray box has two com-

revisit that with this project, but with another process

partments that hold the draw pile and the discard

— resawing. I’ve made a number of these boxes, but

18 GAME BOX

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the first one I made was for my parents, who were liv-

box sides cut from the same board will have three

ing in the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania

corners with continuous grain; all you have to do is

at the time. During a visit there I helped my dad clear

be sure to keep the pieces adjacent to each other in

a downed cherry tree, and we cut up some nice, big

the same order in which you cut them, and the grain

chunks that I crammed in the car to take home. (I had

will appear to flow around the box on three corners.

so much wood shoved in there, the back end almost

You’re out of luck on that fourth corner, though, since

dragged.) To make that first game box a bit more spe-

those points always come from opposite ends of the

cial for them, I made it from some of that cherry.

board, so it’s best to keep that corner in the back of

More than a decade later, I still have a few chunks

the box where it’s less noticeable. With resawing,

of that cherry squirreled — now very well seasoned

however, when you cut two pieces of stock from a

— so I thought it was time to pull some out for this

thicker board, the touching faces — the faces created

project. We’ll resaw one of those chunks to make

by the cut — have mirrored grain. Cut your box sides

3

the ⁄8" stock we’ll need. Milling stock that you’ve

in the correct order, which I’ll show you shortly, and

cut from the tree yourself is very rewarding, plus it

you’ll get a perfect flow on all four sides.

carries with it another benefit for the box maker: By
using resawn stock, you can make a box where all
four corners have continuous grain.
I’ve mentioned continuous grain in some of the
earlier projects like Kim’s Christmas Box, noting that

Construction
First, though, let’s get resawing. Start
by jointing a smooth face on the top
and bottom of your slab; the jointed
bottom makes feeding through the
band saw steadier, while the smooth
top side allows your cut lines to be
clearly seen. Also, once the individual
boards are resawn free of the slab,
you’ll already have straight edges to
ride your table saw’s fence.
Mark your slab for cutting. Since
I needed a quantity of 3⁄8" stock for
this project, I marked the slab for 1⁄2"
cuts — that extra 1⁄8" gives me some
working room for cleaning up the
cut faces. Work your way through the
slab one board at a time, as in Fig. 1.
Note in this photo that after starting
the cut, I’ve slipped a sliver of wood
into the kerf to prevent it from closing up and pinching the blade, which
sometimes happens when resawing.

1

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1"

C Top

9"
51/2"

1

/4" × 3/8"
rabbet

3

/8"

9"

B End (2)

A Side (2)

23/4"
1

/8" × 3/16"
rabbet
3"

D Bottom
85/8"
51/8"

1"
E Spline (8)

1

/4"

1

5

/8"

5

/4"

1"

/8"

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WIDTH

LENGTH

(mm)

A

2

sides

cherry

3⁄8

(10)

3

(76)

9

(229)

B

2

ends

cherry

3⁄8

(10)

3

(76))

51 ⁄ 2

(140)

COMMENTS

THICKNESS

(mm)

PART

(mm)

QUANTITY

STOCK

REFERENCE

GAME BOX • INCHES (MILLIMETERS)

Main Box

C

1

lid

cherry/walnut

5⁄8

(16)

51 ⁄ 2

(140)

9

(229)

D

1

bottom

birch plywood

1⁄ 8

(3)

51 ⁄ 8

(130)

85 ⁄ 8

(219)

E

8

splines

walnut

1 ⁄4

(6)

1

(25)

1

(25)
(178)

Dimension is finished size of lid.

Card Box
F

2

sides

cherry

1 ⁄4

(6)

13 ⁄ 4

(45)

7

G

2

ends

mahogany

1

(25)

13 ⁄ 4

(45)

41 ⁄ 2

(115)

H

1

bottom

cherry

1 ⁄4

(6)

41 ⁄ 4

(108)

7

(178)

J

1

divider

cherry

1 ⁄4

(6)

11 ⁄ 2

(38)

41 ⁄ 4

(108)

41/4"

J Divider
11/2"

G End (2)
F Side (2)

H Bottom
7"

13/4"

7"
41/4"
41/2"

1

/4"

13/4"

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2

3

4

Mark the ends of your resawn stack so you can keep
the board orientation straight after cleaning up the faces
and milling them to final thickness. (Fig. 2) Clean up one
face on the jointer, as I’m doing in Fig. 3, but don’t go overboard; stop as soon as you’ve got the face perfectly smooth.
Now move to the planer to bring the boards to thickness
and clean up the opposite faces. (Fig. 4)
Using the end marks you made earlier, put your two
boards into the same orientation they where in when you

5

cut them, then just allow the two boards to flop open like a
book in a process called book-matching, which we used on
the spalted maple lid insert for Kim’s Christmas Box. You can
see in Fig. 5 how the grain is mirror imaged. These two faces
will become the outside of the box, so to keep them straight,
add witness marks to help you positively identify the orientation. You’ll need these face marks, as we’re about to cut off the
ones you made on the ends. With your witness marks in place,
rip the two boards to the 3" width as indicated on the cut list.

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To make the grain on all four corners continuous, we’ll
cut one side “A” and one end “B” from one board, and the
other side “A” and end “B” from the other. Each board,
then, should first be cut to 14 5⁄8" in length (the combined
length of a 9" side and a 51⁄2" end, plus 1⁄8" for the saw
blade’s kerf between the two) on the table saw as in Fig. 6.
Now, cut a side and an end from each board, and line them
up end-to-end A-B-A-B with the continuous faces up, and
you’ll see that the grain flows smoothly from one piece to
the next. Marks these clearly A-B-A-B, and remember that
these faces (which were in the center of the slab before

you cut) will now become the outside faces of the box. (Fig.
7) To keep the A-B order straight, you might also want to
number the sides 1 through 4.
Cut a 1⁄8" groove for the plywood bottom 3⁄16" deep on
the bottom-inside edge of all the side and end pieces, placing the groove 1⁄8" from the bottom edge. (Fig. 8) This
would also be a good time to cut the plywood bottom to the
dimensions shown in the cut list.
Set your table saw to 45° and cut corner miters on the
ends of each piece as in Fig. 9. Take your time, and cut off
only enough to make the miters.

6

8

7

9

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10

11

12

We’ll assemble the box the same
way we’ve done the other mitercorner boxes in earlier projects by
applying packing tape to the outside
corners, then laying the four connected pieces inside-up to apply the
glue. (Fig. 10) In this photo, you can
easily see the continuous grain running through the miter joints. Now,
insert the plywood bottom into one of
the grooves, and just fold the box up
around the bottom as in Fig. 11. You
can use more packing tape to keep the
box closed, or use a set of band clamps
as I’m doing in Fig. 12. I prefer band
clamps when making mitered boxes,
as there’s no danger of one of the
pieces of tape letting loose. With the
box clamped up, remove any glue
squeeze-out with a damp rag, and
allow the clamped assembly to dry.
Meanwhile, let’s move on to the
lid. I’ve made the lid out of the same
cherry used for the box, but I’ve
added a walnut accent strip down the
lid that will match the corner splines
we’ll add to the box later. Make the lid
by gluing a 1" strip of walnut between
two pieces of cherry, and clamp up till
dry (Fig. 13). If you’re wondering why

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I used such a long piece of walnut,
there’s a good reason. After the gluedup lid is dry, I’ll need to run it through
the planer to bring it to uniform thickness, but unfortunately the two pieces
of cherry I had on hand were too short
for planing. (The minimum length
for workpieces on most benchtop
planers is 12".) Using that extra-long
walnut strip increases the effective
planing length of the lid so that it runs
through the planer with no problem.
This is a good trick to keep in mind
when planing any too-short stock.
With the lid milled to its 5⁄8" thickness, trim it to size on the table saw.
(Fig. 14) With the lid cut to size, mill
a 3⁄8" rabbet 1⁄4" deep around the
underside of the lid. In Fig. 15, I’m
using my router table fitted with a
straight bit, but you could also cut
this rabbet with a dado set installed
in your table saw.

14

13

15

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Now, if you noticed that the grain
of the top during the glue-up in Fig.
13 is way different from the grain of
the finished lid in the lead photo for
this chapter, then you’ve got a keen
eye indeed. You can see the reason
for this in Fig. 16. There was a really
tight knot and small void right in the
edge of that first lid that was completely invisible before routing. When
the router cut into it, it knocked an
ugly chunk out of my lid, turning
it into scrap. Oh, well, it happens
sometimes. However, when I gluedup a second lid, a crack appeared on
one end when I cut it to size, as you
can see in the same photo. I easily repaired the crack with some cyanoacrylate glue (“super” glue), but couldn’t
trim the lid any more to remove the
staining caused by the glue without
making the lid too small. Strike two.
Fortunately, third time was the charm
and yielded the lid you see in the
finished photo. In the meantime, I’ll
hang on to those two failed lids and
adapt them to smaller boxes in some
future project.
With the lid done, let’s move back
to the main box to create the splined
corners. As I noted in the first chapter, miter joints are usually plenty
strong for boxes since they don’t see
a lot of stresses on the joints. Still,
a bit of extra strength is never a bad
thing, and I really like the way splines
accent a box.
You can cut the slots for corner
splines on either the table saw or
router table, but with either method
you’ll need to create a very simple
jig like the one in Fig. 17. There really isn’t much to the jig, and it goes
together quickly. First, make a 45°
crosscut in a short length of 2×4. Flip
one of the pieces over to create a “cradle,” which will hold the 90° corner
of your box, and attach the two pieces
tip-to-tip to a piece of 1×4 stock with
screws driven through the back. Be

16

17

18

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19

20

21

absolutely certain that the screws are
driven above where the cutter will go
by putting them at least 2" above the
cutting edge.
Determine where you want your
splines to be — for this box, I located
them at 1" from the top and bottom
edges of the box — and set the fence
on your saw or router table accordingly. Set the height of your dado set
or router bit carefully, as you don’t
want to cut all the way into the inside
of the box. For this box, a height of no
more than 7⁄16" works well. Run the jig
one time through the cutter to create
a channel, which will allow you to run
the jig smoothly through the real cuts
later. As a plus, the bulk of the jig acts
as a backer to prevent tear-out in the
box corners when cutting the slots.
Set the box in the jig, turn on the
saw or router, and run everything
through as in Fig. 18. Cut four spline
slots with the box oriented with the
box opening facing away from the
fence, then flip the box with the open
side in and make four more slots.
Cut eight small splines from 1⁄4"
walnut and glue them into the slots
on all four corners. (Figs. 19 & 20),
When the splines have dried, trim
them any way you like — I’m using
the band saw in Fig. 21 — and then
sand the splines flush and smooth
with the surface.
That’s it for the main box. Give
everything a good sanding with increasing grits of sandpaper, and apply
the finish of your choice. For this box
I’ve chosen a wiping varnish, but a
rubbed-out oil finish would also look
great. When the finishing is complete, line the bottom of the box with
felt in the color of your choice.

The Card Box
Now, let’s move on to part two of this
box project which is, well, another
box project. This one holds the cards
and is sized to fit inside the main

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box. For this one, I’ve elected to use
the same cherry as in the main box,
but instead of walnut for the accent
wood I’ve opted for mahogany. The
components of this box are on the
small side, so I’ll show you a trick for
making them that’s safer and easier
by doing most of the work before cutting out the individual parts.
Start with the ends (Part G) by cutting a piece of 1" mahogany to 41⁄2"
wide, measured in the direction of
the grain. The length of this workpiece, measured against the grain,
isn’t critical as long as it’s more than
31⁄2", the combined 13⁄4" height of
both end pieces. My workpiece, for
example, was about 51⁄2" long, which
makes for a workpiece large enough
to make the routing we’ll need to do
a lot easier.
Cut a 1⁄2"-wide rabbet 1⁄4" deep on
all four sides of this workpiece. That’s
a pretty high rabbet, so in Fig. 22 you
can see that I’m sneaking up on the
final dimension by making a couple
of passes, raising the bit between
cuts to achieve the full cut. I’ve used
a straight bit in my router table to
make these rabbets, but you can use a
dado set in a table saw.
Once you’ve milled the rabbets,
cut a 13⁄4" slice off each end to create
both end pieces, as in Fig. 23. It’s as
simple as that. Instead of attempting
to cut fairly large rabbets on such
small pieces — an uncomfortable
procedure at best — you’ve cut them
on a larger workpiece and cut the finished pieces from it.
Create the two sides for the card
box the same way by cutting a piece
of 1⁄4" cherry 7" wide, again measured
with the grain. The length of this
piece should be at least double the
13⁄4" height of the sides. Now mill a
1⁄4" wide rabbet 1⁄8" deep into the exact
center of this workpiece for the card
box divider. You can see in Fig. 24 that
I’m using a backer board (yeah, it’s

22

23

24

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1

/4"

11/4"

11/2"

Card Box End

13/4"

41/2"
1

/4"

11/4"
11/2"
33/8"

13/4"
33/8"

1
1

Card Box Side

/8"

/4"
7"

25

26

one of those ruined earlier lids) to
push the workpiece through, which
helps keep it square to the fence.
With the rabbet milled, rip the two
sides to their 13⁄4" height. (Fig. 25) By
milling the larger workpiece before
cutting the final parts to size, not only
is it easier, but you also don’t have to
worry about any tear-out from that rabbet since you’ve cut fresh, clean edges.
Mill a 1⁄4" rabbet 1⁄8" deep on the
bottom edge of each of the sides to
accommodate the 1⁄4" bottom insert,
as in Fig. 26. This rabbet will match
up with the ones you cut earlier in the
bottom edges of the card box ends.
To make cards easier to draw from
the box, create finger openings. For
this box, I’ve cut two openings on
each side of what will be the draw
pile of cards, and a single opening
on the opposite end piece of what
will be the discard pile. However, if
the card game you make this box for
doesn’t allow players to draw from
the discard side, you can opt to skip
an opening there. Or, if you want you
can put openings around the card box
on all four sides. How you arrange
these openings is up to you.

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27

28

Use the pattern provided on the previous page to locate the openings, and then
make the curved portion with a 11⁄4" Forstner bit on the drill press. (Fig. 27) Now head
to the band saw (or use a jigsaw or scroll
saw) to make the vertical cuts as in Fig. 28.
Finally, clean up and smooth the openings
with a spindle sander. You’ll note in Fig. 29
that I’ve made this easier by taping the two
sides together and sanding both openings
at the same time.
Now, assemble the card box with glue
and clamps as in Fig. 30, but go easy on the
clamping pressure! Those openings won’t
take a lot of stress (nor do they really even
need a lot of pressure for a good joint).
When the assembly is dry, apply glue to the
bottom rabbets, drop the 1⁄4" cherry bottom
insert into place, and clamp up.
Finally, glue the divider in place and
clamp things up again. (Figs. 31 & 32)
When the fully assembly card box has
dried, give it a good sanding inside and out.
I put a slight roundover on the outside top
edge of each end piece that I think adds
a nice profile, but you can leave those top
edges square if you’d prefer.
Apply the finish of your choice, and add
felt that matches what you put in the main
box for a complementary effect.

29

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30

31

32

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WOODWORKIN G

Box Builder’s Handbook
the project as a springboard to make additional boxes of this